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Competition and Wage Effects in the Global Online Market for Microwork and Services Outsourcing

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Socially Responsible Outsourcing

Part of the book series: Technology, Work and Globalization ((TWG))

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Abstract

Today, the competitive effects of globalization are no longer felt only at the level of the nation or the firm, but also directly by members of the labor force themselves. Technological developments facilitating outsourcing and offshoring of service activities gradually turn the world into a level playing field in which anyone can compete for work with anyone else regardless of his or her location (Friedman 2005). As a result, new, previously sheltered groups, particularly in Western labor markets, are now increasingly susceptible to direct competition from not only their domestic but also their international peers. If offshoring in the 1970s and 1980s mostly affected low-skilled blue-collar workers, many in the West are now expressing alarm that in today’s age of cheap telecommunications and declining barriers to distance, people in low-cost economies such as India can perform almost any job — whether high- or low-skilled — for a fraction of the wages in the West (Levy 2005). The critical divide in the future may be between types of work that are or are not easily deliverable through a wire (or wireless) and no longer between jobs that do or do not require high levels of education (Blinder 2006).

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Authors
  1. Niels Beerepoot
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  2. Bart Lambregts
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Manchester Business School, UK

    Brian Nicholson

  2. Ryerson University, Canada

    Ron Babin

  3. University of Missouri-St Louis, USA

    Mary C. Lacity

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© 2016 Niels Beerepoot and Bart Lambregts

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Beerepoot, N., Lambregts, B. (2016). Competition and Wage Effects in the Global Online Market for Microwork and Services Outsourcing. In: Nicholson, B., Babin, R., Lacity, M.C. (eds) Socially Responsible Outsourcing. Technology, Work and Globalization. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-137-55729-2_7

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